I've added a few photos to yesterday's diary that I took last night as I didn't have time to do any yesterday. Calisto was the only baby that didn't gain much weight last night. She gained a measly 4 grams. She's been doing really well though so I'm not overly worried but I will be keeping a close eye on her. When I went upstairs this morning, I couldn't even get in the door of the Kitten Room as the mums and babies had barricaded themselves in! The big kitten bed, and the boxes were up against the door so it was very difficult to get in without accidentally squashing one of the babies. The mums were no help at all because as I was slowly trying to open the door, they were trying to get out as quick as they could. I am blaming the Ori babies for this as they were the ones who were all around the back of the door. The clothes in the wardrobe were all lying on the floor again and the dry food was everywhere. I have no idea what those little terrors get up to when I'm asleep but it would be nice if they cleaned up their mess every now and then. All 4 acted like they were starving when I put their food down in front of them this morning. Gabby and Hera, once they have eaten, concentrated solely on climbing my legs and refusing to get down until they have been picked up and cuddled.

Today's surprising news for you all, is that Hercules will now be known as "Hera". We had suspected for quite some time that Hercules was actually female. We only ever sexed him/her the once and that was when he was born, we never thought to look again after that. However, for some obscure reason, we examined him to find that he is indeed a girl. The Little Warriors are still eating for England and gaining weight every day. Poor little Gabby had her exploring brought to a sudden halt this morning. Every time she got out of bed, Tia was right behind her to send her back. It's for this reason that when the babies are awake and playing, I put the 2 mums out of the room so the babies can have lots of freedom and can eat without mums gulping down the lot. Their favourite meals are the morning and evening ones. When it comes to their meals during they day time, quite often, only some of the babies will eat. This doesn't worry me as they all still feed from mum as well as having their solid food. All 4 babies are absolute terrors now when they are awake, although Gabby appears to be the naughties at this stage. We think that Hera has "special powers" because she sees things that aren't there. As well as playing with the other babies, she will quite often be seen playing with her invisible friends. I haven't taken any photos today as we had one of the new owners for our Oriental litter here to see them which was really lovely as we hadn't met them before. Hopefully they enjoyed their visit as much as we did.

There's really nothing to write about in today's entry as the babies haven't actually done anything remarkable or out of the ordinary. That is, apart from Gabriel who I'm proud to say now eats dry food just like the big cats. I caught her at it 3 times yesterday and again today. She's the first of the Ori babies to try the dry food and she really seems to like it. All 4 made good weight gains last night so we have absolutely no worries on that score.

I don't know if any of you have seen the Lion King but if so, do you remember the part where Mufasa was teaching Simba how to stalk Zazu? Well last night, the babies were doing just that and it reminded me of that part in the movie. The Ori's had decided to practice their stalking skills on the Siamese babies and it was so funny. Next thing you know, there's little babies all over the place with bushy tails and hair standing on end because they had all scared each other and themselves. Gabby is feeling rather proud of herself as today she scared the heck out of Pru and made her jump up in the air and land in the water bowl. The Little Warriors were sound asleep this morning when I went in to give them breakfast. Normally all the babies are up and about and playing. The smell of the food soon brought them round, all except for little Calisto who had no intentions of waking up. I dipped my finger in the food and waved it under her nose, sure enough, within a few minutes she was suddenly starving. All the babies now appear to be attempting to go to the toilet in or near the litter tray which is a big relief. At one stage, they were just weeing anywhere and everywhere. Floor washing on a daily basis is a big part of a breeder's life!! Gabriel's favourite trick is to wait till one of the other babies goes behind the ottoman so she can then go in after them, corner them and not let them out. Poor Gabriel had a rough time with Tia this morning as when I brought the babies downstairs, most of them settled in the cat bed and started to fed off mums, however Gabriel was wide awake and wanted to play so she kept getting out of bed. Every time she got out, Tia was right behind her trying to put her back in. So whenever Tia had her back turned, Gabriel was out again. She was trying to drink from the water bowl, so Tia came along and groomed her all over and then picked her up and put her back in bed again. This went on for about 20 minutes. Gabby eventually got smart and gave up and stayed in bed with the others. Lunch time today was a real mess as I had one plate of food on the floor for everyone to eat, and another plate with slightly different food for Phoebe. Everyone had some from the main plate, however, Phoebe had to be fed in the bed as she refused to eat anywhere else today, so then of course, all the Little Warriors decided to eat in the bed as well. So while some were eating, others were climbing into the bed, only to stand in the food, tip it up everywhere and create quite a mess.

Our Oriental babies are putting the Siamese to shame when it comes to eating. As soon as I put the food down and call the babies over, they come tearing over, almost falling into the food to get to it. It's hard to believe they are only 4 weeks old. All 4 babies are now absolute terrors and spend all the play time chasing the Siamese, chasing each other or climbing up my legs. There was never any need to worry that the Siamese babies might hurt the Ori's during play time because of the size difference. Our Little Warriors have certainly proved that they are more than capable of holding their own in rough and tumble play. They're still making really good weight gains but that is no surprise the way they are eating. Gabriel and Hercules are constantly looking for cuddles from us humans whereas Xena and Calisto are happy to have cuddles but still want to play a lot.

It's truly astonishing how many cats/kittens can fit in a cat carrier! I brought one of our carriers inside so that when I move the babies from the Kitten Room to downstairs and then back up later, it's much easier and safer to put them all in a cat carrier than it is to go up and down the stairs 4 times carrying 2 kittens each time. Anyway, the babies appear to love the carrier and I left it downstairs today in the room that the kittens and I are in and sure enough, both mums, and all 8 kittens stuffed themselves into the carrier! Now the carrier in question is only a medium size, suitable to fit one adult cat comfortably, or a mum and a few kittens. How they can be all comfortable is beyond me yet they've been in there for about 2 hours now! I'm really pleased to say that Calisto has now caught up with her litter mates and is now weaning properly. Last night I sat her in my lap and offered her some of the kitten food from my finger which she readily ate and after about 10 minutes of doing this repeatedly I placed her in front of the plate so she would realise where the food was coming from. She started eating straight away and although she is a bit slower than the other Ori's, she ambles up to the plate and joins them in eating so it's excellent progress as she was the only one of them who hadn't started weaning properly. If only they would learn litter training as easily as they learned to eat solid foods. I am however, leaving litter training up to the mums to teach them. They only time I interfere in litter training is if I see one of them about to go to the toilet on the floor etc, then I pick them up and place them in the tray. The babies are moving way too fast for me now and I have to be so careful. Every time I leave the room, they little Warriors all come racing over to me and then try to follow me into the kitchen, or into the main lounge area and it's really difficult to get in and out now without one of them accidentally coming with me.

4 weeks old today and I'm happy to say that our babies are weaned, all except for Calisto who is starting to make progress as well. Time is starting to fly by now and it seems like only yesterday that they were born. The girls personalities to date go something like this. Gabriel is the thinker and really needs and loves people. Xena is the daring one who loves to explore and wrestle with the Siamese. Hercules is simply a little lunatic but soooooo loveable. Calisto isn't quite sure yet what she wants to be but she's figuring it out day by day. These babies are so incredibly loveable and such people orientated kittens that goodness only knows how I'm going to be able to let them go when they reach 13-14 weeks of age. It's a day that I am truly dreading. Out of the 2 litters, they are definitely the most vocal and even at 4 weeks of age they are as active as the Siamese babies. I tried again without any success to take photos of the babies, but it just wasn't happening today. I will try later on this evening when they are in the kitten room and hopefully will have more luck.